An international businessman, entrepreneur and technologist, Prince Malik Ado-Ibrahim, who hails from Kogi state, has said that he is joining the Young Progressives Party (YPP); in order to contest in the 2023 presidential election and rescue the country from decades of maladministration. While responding to questions from reporters, AdoIbrahim, who was welcomed into the YPP, after obtaining his membership form in Abuja Thursday, said that the party is not interested in zoning arrangements for the presidential election, but more concerned about qualified and experienced people helping to solve myriads of problems bedeviling the country. He said: “I am a businessman. I come from a family that has served Nigeria from its inception.
I never thought I will be in this position that I would have to serve my country. Everyone will not be passive in a democracy. We must do our part. Let the legislature make laws, while we do our part by voting. “The baton of my family’s meritorious years of selfless services has been passed on to me, to serve selflessly. We have seen mediocrity reign in this country. We are seeing people lose interest in what is the greatest country on this continent. We have greatness within us and we are just letting things happen. Things don’t just happen, things fall apart. If you don’t sow, you can’t reap.
“I have a love for Nigeria. I lived outside this country for 47 years, studied, worked hard and I came home not because I didn’t have any other thing to do, but I had things to do here. I learnt, I listened and I got involved. “I am joining YPP because if I try what I want to do in any other party in this country, I will be shuffled to the bottom of the pack. In most countries, I am not young anymore. But in Nigeria, I am a small boy. In Nigeria, a 77-year-old man can still be aspiring to be a youth leader. So, we are stuck, giving the mantle of leadership to people who do not completely understand what the bulk of this country needs. “For me, we need to lead by example, to get myself involved in learning what Nigeria needs to be learnt. At the grassroots level, agriculture is what everyone is talking about. Every administration comes and talks about agriculture. However, young men find excuses not to get involved in agriculture. Modernity, technology in agriculture could take Nigeria to many places you can’t imagine. We have 65 million hectares of land that is arable in this country. I have studied it. We even prepared 33 million hectares of land for food security for the international environment. So, Nigeria can be the food basket.
“There are things Nigeria needs to do differently. Our farmers farm so that they can eat what they produce. In most countries, farmers farm so that they can get cash crops and afford anything. We need to find cash crops that bring currency to Nigeria. We need to encourage our farmers to look beyond just the basic, we need to look for things that is sustainable to the world. This climate change thing is real. They have been tornadoes and hurricanes in different countries and we have the rainy season and dry season.
We can grow anything in this country. Under the leadership that YPP will empower me to have, by God’s grace, we will focus on cash crops, export crops, ways to feed our country and the world because they will be coming here for us to give them sustenance and we must be ready for that. That is one of the visionary elements.”
On marginalization
He added: “Unfortunately, the division is the sad reality of the country today. When we don’t have good leaders, we leave a vacuum and that vacuum would be filled by those who would want to do us harm. We need a uniter-in-chief, somebody who sees the heart of a person, not tribal marks or the language he speaks, whether he hails from the east of kneels down in the church. We need to show that Nigeria is one. And that can only be done by example. A leader that can go anywhere in this country without fear, somebody who has the best intention for his brothers and sisters, regardless of whatever country they come from. “If the void of leadership is filled properly, what we are experiencing in the South East will not happen. You shouldn’t be afraid to go home. You shouldn’t be told you can’t leave your home, because somebody has an ulterior motive. We are in a democracy and Nigerians need to defend their democracy. We don’t need soldiers in the streets to do this; we need somebody with conviction, somebody who leads with the spirit of Nigeria running through his veins. And that leader will sow unity to this country by God’s grace. That is what we deserve.”
On insecurity
Continuing, he said: “We are a country that has liberated many countries around the world. We have a glorious army with a glorious heritage. We liberated Liberia, Sierra Leone, Congo, Darfur. Nigerians were revealed and feared. For some reason, we have turned our gallant men and women into mediocre-enabled personnel. In a democracy, you cannot use your army as your first responder. They are defending the enemy within and afar. In a democracy, the police force has to be strengthened. When your run-in-a-mill bandit, terrorist, armed robbers are carrying AK-47, under YPP government, the army will not carry AK-47. “We will give them, arm them, secure them with better, stronger, more powerful weapons. We will train our police force to respect those that are within the country. Rule of law is important and must be brought back. If we do that, we can respond to threats. “As the son of a traditional ruler, I will reach out to the traditional rulers of this country. They are an amazing piece of the puzzle for security.
They live within the people. They are not in the capital. When you kidnap someone and put him in a hut, the traditional ruler has that intelligence. He knows who trouble makers are in that village. A local government chairman should not be able to remove a traditional ruler. When you have traditional rulers that can reach out and do what they were doing in the past as traditional rulers’ councils, they can approach the Presidency and pass intelligence to the security apparatus and things will get done. We have removed that power. We have removed our tradition. We have taken what is Nigerian away from Nigeria. So, we must get back to basics. Resetting Nigeria requires we reset everything: from our education to security, to our thinking. If we can do that, we are on the part to greatness, but we must get back to basics.”
On zoning
He added: “As the chairman of YPP said, we don’t believe in zoning. Let able minds do what able minds can do. Let’s put a square in a square and a circle in a circle. It is important to see able minds come and challenge the likes of myself. It is what democracy is about. Let’s hear what they have to say. If we can do that, there is no need for zoning. “We have Nigerians, they can live anywhere, it doesn’t matter where they are from. It should not be because you are close to the source of water that you will drink more water and that you are smarter than me. Or I am from this or that tribe or closer to the dessert. It is the content of your heart and nature that will make you lead this country. That is all I am interested in. Let us find the right person. Forget zoning, put that able man to lead this country and we will have a fantastic country ahead of us.”